City of Sunnyvale

At the State of the City Address on March 4th, Melinda Teves, a teacher at Cumberland Elementary School, and her fifth grade class were chosen to receive the Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award for their waste reduction and recycling efforts. Ms. Teves and her students were honored by Mayor Julia Miller, City Council members, and 100+ attendees at the ceremony.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

About the Winner...

Ms. Teves took it upon herself to improve the recycling program at Cumberland, which in the last two years has grown to include:

30 crates for in-classroom paper recycling
3 cans/bottle recycling carts
4 paper recycling carts
2 cubic yard cardboard recycling bin

Her students collect paper for recycling from the whole school every Friday and compost food waste in the classroom.

They also developed an innovative project to increase the number of food and beverage containers that are recycled at their school. The kids divided themselves into 4 groups. Each group adopted a third grade class and each tried out a different method (classroom presentations, positive/negative feedback, peer pressure and a control group) for convincing kids to recycle during lunchtime. The students monitored the recycling and trash bins during recess and lunch, researched City of Sunnyvale disposal statistics, and even assessed the material inside their class trash bin. They plan to compile and evaluate their results and put together a scrapbook of their work.

By educating students, teachers, and school administrators about recycling, Ms. Teves and her class are helping to conserve natural resources and landfill space, reduce air and water pollution and conserve water and energy.

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